TESTIMONIES Erasmus Mundus Students, Alumni and Scholars from

Dr Salamun Sastrawikarta is 65 years old and completed his Master of
Public Health in 1971 in the USA. After completing his general
practitioner education at the Faculty of Medicines of the University of
Indonesia in 1969, he joined the Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI) and
retired as Colonel.
My clinical skill is as an eye specialist and I have mastered 60% of all
super-specialisation in the science of eye disease. I have also conducted
researches in various fields that I have mastered, including hospital
management, hospital planning, hospital waste disposal, refractive
disorders in school children, hereditary diseases, cancer, family
planning, rehabilitation of narcotic users, HIV/AIDS and Avian Flu.
When the Erasmus Mundus programme was introduced, I was very
interested considering that the European Union had the experience in
Public Health, which are caused by, among others, major migration
from various countries, either within the European Union itself or from
developing countries.
Testimonies - Erasmus Mundus Scholarship Programme
Dr Salamun Sastrawikarta
Erasmus Mundus 2007
European Public Health Master (Europubhealth)
The most challenging thing for me as a Master’s degree graduate
from the USA was to comprehend the Public Health education in
the UK and mainland Europe. My choice to teach and conduct
research in Sheffield (UK) and Krakow (Poland) was very accurate.
The UK, which has a social system for health and a monarchy
background, and Poland, which applies an open market system and
post-communist political system, have given me priceless
experience. I taught 37 international students from 9 countries,
with diverse cultural background, varied level of education and
different ages. It was very interesting.
In Sheffield, we were provided with very sophisticated teaching
facilities. However, we had to do everything ourselves. Only the
dean had a secretary. My colleagues laughed when I told them that
in Indonesia I had a personal secretary and also an assistant
secretary.
Unfortunately, my stay in Europe, in my opinion, was not long
enough and most of the teachers from 6 universities in the
Europubhealth consortium were relatively very young. They might
have doctoral degrees but their teaching and research experience
were still very limited.
When I attended a postgraduate program me abroad with a
scholarship in 1971, there were only 6 foreign students. In 2008, I
obtained a scholarship as an Erasmus Mundus scholar for teaching
Master’s students, and there were 37 foreign students. It was a
very different experience.